Congressman Lamar Smith, the Republican charged with redrawing Texas' congressional districts, has floated a map that would transform Doggett's district into one that barrels from Austin down Interstate 35, 18-wheeler style, through San Antonio's East Side, then veers west across the mostly Latino South Side.

Under Smith's proposed map, to be taken up Thursday by the Senate redistricting committee in what is always a fluid process, the district would become majority Latino and — more important to the GOP — its center of gravity would shift to San Antonio. Its brilliance lies in the long odds that voters here would accept being represented by anyone from Austin, Democrat or Republican.

“It's been obvious they want to get rid of Doggett,” said Bill Owens, a San Antonio lawyer who closely monitors redistricting. “That's more or less public knowledge, and they'll go to any extent to do that.”

What makes Smith's ploy slick is that it draws the home of state Rep. Mike Villarreal into Doggett's district. It would surprise no one if Villarreal, one of the few Democrats with a hand in the process, allowed his own congressional ambitions to trump any impulse to wage an uphill fight to see that his party gains a seat.

Villarreal said he supports adding a majority-Hispanic district for its own sake, regardless of who lives where. He said he sees Hispanics being underrepresented “in a real way every day, in a Texas House that currently is not a reflection of the state's values and people.”

Doggett, long a target of line-drawing Republicans, last year stuck his head up even higher when he pushed the so-called Doggett Amendment. That would have required Gov. Rick Perry to pledge that federal education money wouldn't be diverted for other purposes. The impasse ended when U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced that $830 million would be forthcoming after all.

With a run on his district looming, Doggett has shown new interest in San Antonio. He'll be in town today to meet with local Democrats, and he's coming in with his dukes up.

“The fact that Republicans want to eliminate a voice in Congress that does not march in lockstep with them is nothing new,” he said.

There's been a three-year logjam in the Legislature, stunting the political careers of several ambitious young Democrats, Villarreal among them. Some have their eyes on challenging Francisco “Quico” Canseco in District 23, seen by many as vulnerable, but Doggett's seat would be tempting.

In another twist, Smith might have an ally, strange-bedfellow style, in the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Perhaps the most likely litigant against any redistricting plan that underrepresents Hispanics, MALDEF has floated at least one map with a similar district sprawling from San Antonio to Austin. In fact, that could be where Smith got the idea.

In a hearing last month, Villarreal pressed MALDEF Attorney Nina Perales to say that the map with him in Doggett's district would be safer from a legal challenge than another version MALDEF put forth. He managed to do so without having to declare his personal interest in her answer.

In games of chance, that's called a “tell.” For Smith and other Republicans, it's merely fun to watch.